“A 13-year-old Yemeni girl has died of internal bleeding three days after being married, rights groups say.” … The report comes amid ongoing debate on setting a minimum age for brides in Yemen, where more than a quarter of girls are married before the age of 15.
The story also reports that, “A 2009 law setting the minimum age at 17 was repealed after some lawmakers said it was un-Islamic. A final decision is due this month.”
Why is it always reported like this? “Some lawmakers said it was un-Islamic” makes it sound questionable. It is un-Islamic to set a minimum age for a girl to be married… well, one could argue for maybe 6 years old or 9 years old as the minimum, but not older than that. They are right it is un-Islamic — which gives us another example of why we should oppose Islam.
In Islam, Mohammad’s life is the best example of how to lead a virtuous life. How he lived his life is to be emulated by faithful Muslims. It is blasphemous to suggest that Mohammad’s moral example could be improved upon.
Relevant verse from the Koran:
Surah Al-Ahzab 33:21
Ye have indeed in the Messenger of Allah a beautiful pattern (of conduct) for any one whose hope is in Allah and the Final Day, and who engages much in the Praise of Allah.
The Sahih al-Bukhari is the most trusted Sunni collection of Hadiths which records the life of Mohammad. It has passages like the following (the link is to the specific quote in the USC-MSA Compendium of Muslim Texts):
The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with ‘Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death).
Mohammad consummated his marriage with a nine year old. The consequences of his actions have tragic consequences for people alive today. More than a quarter of girls are married before they are 15…
The situation in Yemen is bad and Islam is directly standing in the way of progress. The law-makers who oppose minimum age laws for marriage do so on sound Islamic reasoning. It does no good to paper over this fact when reporting on the situation. These stories should go in the back of the minds of my fellow non-believers who have to repeatedly argue with their fellow non-believers that it matters what people believe.
There is a Muslim man named Ali Hussain Sibat — he traveled to Saudi Arabia to participate in the Umrah, a lesser pilgrimage than the Hajj. He was arrested in Saudi Arabia because he was the host of a Lebanese call-in TV show where he would take call-ins and predict the future.
Predicting the future? That sounded like sorcery to the religious authorities in Saudi Arabia, so they tried and sentenced him to death (TV presenter gets death sentence for ‘sorcery’). The death sentence is apparently going to go forward in the next two days unless something official happens according to an updated CNN article: Beheading planned in Saudi sorcerer case.
There’s not much to more to add than what Amnesty International said in a press release where Malcolm Smart, Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa programme, said “Ali Hussain Sibat appears to have been convicted solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression. Further: The organization urged the authorities to desist from charging and convicting people for “apostasy” as it violates the legitimate exercise of the right to freedom of expression and freedom of religion.”
We have another example of faith giving us a terrible solution to an imagined problem:
Q: What to do with those that can (or try to) predict the future?
A: Current answer in Saudi Arabia: Behead them.
One of my complaints about how these kinds of news stories are reported is that they frequently seem to imply that the religious courts “claim they decided to behead a person for religious reasons” — as though this might not be the true motivation. Are all executions religiously based? No, probably not. If there are reasons to doubt the motivations, bring them up, but if there aren’t, I think that they should mention that the Holy Scriptures of Islam are used directly to come up with the sentencing.
Here are just a few verses on the topic so that you are told the relevant source material.
Koran 2.102
YUSUFALI: They followed what the evil ones gave out (falsely) against the power of Solomon: the blasphemers Were, not Solomon, but the evil ones, teaching men Magic, and such things as came down at babylon to the angels Harut and Marut. But neither of these taught anyone (Such things) without saying: “We are only for trial; so do not blaspheme.” They learned from them the means to sow discord between man and wife. But they could not thus harm anyone except by Allah’s permission. And they learned what harmed them, not what profited them. And they knew that the buyers of (magic) would have no share in the happiness of the Hereafter. And vile was the price for which they did sell their souls, if they but knew!
(source)
Koran 4.051
YUSUFALI: Hast thou not turned Thy vision to those who were given a portion of the Book? they believe in sorcery and Evil, and say to the Unbelievers that they are better guided in the (right) way Than the believers! (source)
Koran 20.069
YUSUFALI: “Throw that which is in thy right hand: Quickly will it swallow up that which they have faked what they have faked is but a magician’s trick: and the magician thrives not, (no matter) where he goes.” (source)
Or the charges for sorcery show that he is no longer a Muslim, and so the punishment for apostasy is appropriate — the punishment for which is death according to the most authoritative Hadith the Sahih al-Bukhari:
Volume 4, Book 52, Number 260:
Narrated Ikrima:
Ali burnt some people and this news reached Ibn ‘Abbas, who said, “Had I been in his place I would not have burnt them, as the Prophet said, ‘Don’t punish (anybody) with Allah’s Punishment.’ No doubt, I would have killed them, for the Prophet said, ‘If somebody (a Muslim) discards his religion, kill him.’”
Volume 9, Book 84, Number 57:
Narrated ‘Ikrima:
Some Zanadiqa (atheists) were brought to ‘Ali and he burnt them. The news of this event, reached Ibn ‘Abbas who said, “If I had been in his place, I would not have burnt them, as Allah’s Apostle forbade it, saying, ‘Do not punish anybody with Allah’s punishment (fire).’ I would have killed them according to the statement of Allah’s Apostle, ‘Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.’”
Volume 9, Book 83, Number 17:
Narrated ‘Abdullah:
Allah’s Apostle said, “The blood of a Muslim who confesses that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that I am His Apostle, cannot be shed except in three cases: In Qisas for murder, a married person who commits illegal sexual intercourse and the one who reverts from Islam (apostate) and leaves the Muslims.”
Hopefully we can bring more awareness so that international pressure builds against this kind of violent superstition.
I know that there are much more violent and graphic videos that I could use, but this one should be sickening enough. The following disturbing video shows a 17 year old girl being held down by two men and being beaten by a third. The man is unashamedly beating this girl in public. Why?
The man read a magic book called the Koran which says:
“The woman and the man guilty of adultery or fornication,- flog each of them with a hundred stripes: Let not compassion move you in their case, in a matter prescribed by Allah, if ye believe in Allah and the Last Day: and let a party of the Believers witness their punishment.”
That pesky human emotion “compassion” has to be kept in check after all.
I am frequently asked why I maintain a site like this. Why do I argue against religion and superstition. These questions are fair enough. I have a partial explanation in a rather long writeup called: Why I engage in religious debates.
Occasionally, and much more insidiously, my fellow atheists occasionally try to protect the poor theists of the world from the bullying atheist who keeps insisting that reality be consulted. Some atheists will defend religious belief against criticism because they feel that some people need religion in their life. If you find yourself with this kind of “the theists need to be shielded from critical thinking” notion as though you are protecting someone, watch the video on this page and ask yourself which person you are defending.
If you try to stifle criticism of religion, are you defending the girl being held down and beaten? Or are you defending the man with the whip in his hand?
If you are unsure, play the video again, and as you listen to the screaming girl, explain to yourself exactly why this man’s beliefs deserve to be shielded from criticism.
Part of the problem with people using the “warm-fuzzy-feeling truth detector” method of deciding which book is God’s word, is you get people who feel justified in dictating other people’s lives. Sometimes this manifests itself as a warm feeling that convinces Mormons to give money to revoke the rights of homosexuals to get married. Sometimes this manifests itself as a warm feeling that convinces a Muslim guy to beat a seventeen year old girl if she is merely found to be in a house with a seventeen year old boy. What business is it of this guy? He whips this girl and feels completely justified because his magic book is very clear on the subject matter.
So, another news story that clearly shows the kinds of things that happen when Shariah law is implemented. First the news story, then a few specific quotes from the Hadith that these aspects of Shariah law are based on.
“In all the mosques in Afghanistan, all the mullahs said, ‘Zalmai is an infidel. He should be killed,’” Zalmai recounted as he sat outside the chief judge’s chambers waiting for a recent hearing.
…
There is no law in Afghanistan prohibiting the translation of the Quran. But Zalmai is accused of violating Islamic Shariah law by modifying the Quran. The courts in Afghanistan, an Islamic state, are empowered to apply Shariah law when there are no applicable existing statutes.
…
The prosecutor wants the death penalty for Zalmai and the cleric, who have now spent more than a year in prison.
… In January 2008, a court sentenced a journalism student to death for blasphemy for asking questions about women’s rights under Islam. An appeals court reduced the sentence to 20 years in prison. … In 2006, an Afghan man was sentenced to death for converting to Christianity. He was later ruled insane and was given asylum in Italy. Islamic leaders and the parliament accused President Hamid Karzai of being a puppet for the West for letting him live.
Islamic leaders and parliament are right to accuse President Karzai of being a puppet of the West for letting a Muslim apostate live. The leaders and parliament are basing the punishment directly from Sharia law. This is not some mob that got upset and happened to kill a person. This is the ruling that courts and Islamic leaders come to and publicly announce after some thought.
I am annoyed that these stories tend to mention that Islamic leaders press for the death of apostates, etc., based on Sharia law, and yet, they do not cite WHY these leaders think that death is appropriate. I go into some detail in my essay, Apostasy in Islam. Until I looked into it myself, I sort of imagined that these death penalty type sentences were just the expression of extreme annoyance and that there is no way that Islam actually teaches these things at its core.
Turns out that is not the case: I will post some of the relevant verses here.
First, a brief background: Hadiths are oral traditions about prophet Muhammad. The most trusted Sunni collection of Hadiths was collected by Muhammad al-Bukhari (810 – 870 CE) is called Sahih al-Bukhari (which means “authentic al-Bukhari”).
The following quotes from the Hadith come from the USC Compendium of Muslim Texts and I’ve linked each one to the source material.
Volume 4, Book 52, Number 260:
Narrated Ikrima:
Ali burnt some people and this news reached Ibn ‘Abbas, who said, “Had I been in his place I would not have burnt them, as the Prophet said, ‘Don’t punish (anybody) with Allah’s Punishment.’ No doubt, I would have killed them, for the Prophet said, ‘If somebody (a Muslim) discards his religion, kill him.’ “
Volume 9, Book 84, Number 57:
Narrated ‘Ikrima:
Some Zanadiqa (atheists) were brought to ‘Ali and he burnt them. The news of this event, reached Ibn ‘Abbas who said, “If I had been in his place, I would not have burnt them, as Allah’s Apostle forbade it, saying, ‘Do not punish anybody with Allah’s punishment (fire).’ I would have killed them according to the statement of Allah’s Apostle, ‘Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.’“
Volume 9, Book 83, Number 17:
Narrated ‘Abdullah:
Allah’s Apostle said, “The blood of a Muslim who confesses that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that I am His Apostle, cannot be shed except in three cases: In Qisas for murder, a married person who commits illegal sexual intercourse and the one who reverts from Islam (apostate) and leaves the Muslims.“
What happens when people believe that these texts are divinely inspired and should dictate how every aspect of their lives should be lead? Well, the cited news story (and the other incidents that it mentions) are some very obvious examples.
You may remember that I wrote a few weeks back about the 8 year old who could not legally get divorced from her 58 year old husband. I had a couple (not many) comments about how blaming the religion for the Sharia based ruling that the court gave was incorrect. I found this amazing because the article clearly stated that the court ruled based on their religious books AND I quoted from the relevant Hadith citing Mohammad’s example.
Now the top cleric in Saudi Arabia has weighed in on the matter and given his thoughtful religious declaration about young girls marrying older men.
Turns out he has read his religious texts and believes them to be a good way to live.
The debate over the practice of men marrying children in Saudi Arabia was back in the spotlight this week, with the kingdom’s top cleric refusing to annul the marriage of an 8-year-old girl to a 47-year-old man.
…Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh, the kingdom’s grand mufti, said in remarks quoted Wednesday in the regional Al-Hayat newspaper. “A girl aged 10 or 12 can be married. Those who think she’s too young are wrong and they are being unfair to her.”
… “We hear a lot in the media about the marriage of underage girls,” he said, according to the newspaper. “We should know that Shariah law has not brought injustice to women.”
Sharia law is explicitly based on religious texts that say that these things are allowed.
In Islam, Mohammad’s life is the best example of how to lead a virtuous life. How he lived his life is to be emulated by faithful Muslims. It is blasphemous to suggest that Mohammad’s moral example could be improved upon. This leads to some tragic modern day occurrences.
The Sahih al-Bukhari is the most trusted Sunni collection of Hadiths which records the life of Mohammad. It has passages like the following (the link is to the specific quote in the USC-MSA Compendium of Muslim Texts):
HADITH: Sahih al-Bukari — Volume 7, Book 62, Number 88: Narrated ‘Ursa:
The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with ‘Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death).
Mohammad consummated his marriage with a nine year old.
If people honestly believed that this kind of behavior is the highest morality that we could even aim for, what effect could this kind of thinking have in the real world today?
We have the answer — the head cleric of Saudi Arabia has, once again, declared that Sharia Law not only allows children brides, but is proud of that fact.
A father gives his 8 year old daughter in marriage to a 58 year old in exchange for a dowry. The mother, funny enough, did not approve and filed papers with a Saudi court.
As the article states: Lawyer Abdullar Jtili said:”The judge has dismissed the plea, filed by the mother, because she does not have the right to file such a case, and ordered that the plea should be filed by the girl herself when she reaches puberty.”
Too bad that the mother does not have equal rights as the father with regards to the daughter… not to mention the daughter’s rights!
In Islam, Mohammad’s life is the best example of how to lead a virtuous life. How he lived his life is to be emulated by faithful Muslims. It is blasphemous to suggest that Mohammad’s moral example could be improved upon. This leads to some tragic modern day occurrences. The Sahih al-Bukhari is the most trusted Sunni collection of Hadiths which records the life of Mohammad.
It has passages like the following (the link is to the specific quote in the USC-MSA Compendium of Muslim Texts):
Volume 7, Book 62, Number 88: Narrated ‘Ursa:
The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with ‘Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death).
The Prophet is, of course, Mohammad, who is seen consummating a marriage with a nine year old.
If people honestly believed that this kind of behavior is the highest morality that we could even aim for, what effect could this kind of thinking have in the real world today?
This is not a hypothetical — we have the answer — the cited news story is just one more example of the effects of this kind of religious belief.
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